This exhibition presents glimpses of Colonial India from eyes of foreign artists

This writer remembers when the most prized titles on the book shelf at home would be his fatherrsquos collection of Paul Scottrsquos Raj Quartet It evokes a nostalgia though tinged with Colonialism A peek into the works on display at DAGrsquos upcoming exhibition Destination India Foreign Artists in India 18571947 that opens tomorrow offers a similar deacutejagrave vu Giles Tillotson curator and senior vice president DAG has been at the helm of putting this vast collection of around 100 works togetherTaj Mahal at Sunset kokka woodblock print on paper 1919 Charles William BartlettFor a long time there has been a general myth among art historians that the attraction of India diminished for artists post the 1857 War of Independence owing to the rise of photography But Tillotson observes ldquoAs I began to oversee acquisitions there were names we had not always heard of There was a story to tell not that artists had stopped coming to India but that they were coming from diverse parts of the worldrdquoThese included Charles William Bartlett Alfred Edward Emslie Marius Bauer Cecil Burns Edwin Lord Weeks Erich Kips Hugo Vilfred Pedersen and Hiroshi Yoshida to name but a few These were American Dutch Danish and Japanese artists moving through the heartland of IndiaA changed perspectiveThe challenge of photography also shaped their perspective ldquoIt was no longer an enlightenment or explanation of the Orient but a much more individual response to different experiencesrdquo Tillotson points out As an example he points to William Hodgesrsquo first visit to the Taj Mahal in 1783Ajumeru no BurenderuwajaaHigh Gate in Ajmer Buland Darwaza of Ajmer Hiroshi Yoshida kokka woodblock print on paper 1931ldquoHodges is the first artist to ever visit the Taj Mahal He was producing work for an audience that had heard of the Taj Mahal but never seen an image By the time William Simpson and Edward Lear visit a century later it has become a clicheacuterdquo he states And so the works become individual perspectives offering a glimpse of marketplaces people landscapes and culture mdash vibrant in colour culture and texture of life The locations were just as new as the perspectiveExotic not colonialThe meagre presence of Colonial epicentres such as Bombay in the works evokes our curiosity ldquoThe artists were looking at Bombay as another European city They are in search of subject matters that are more exoticrdquo the curator adds While Delhi Agra and Benares continued to fascinate them the period turns attention to destinations such as Rajasthan and Kashmir mdash new unexplored regions till the late 19th and even 20th Century The establishment of rail networks a stabilised Colonial conquest of India enabled these travelsAn Indian Street Scene Alfred Edward Emslie watercolour on paper pasted on cardboardYet Bombay is a key artistic city of the period for the artists who did stay behind Cecil Burns would go on to head the Bombay School of Art later Sir JJ School of Art as will Charles Gerrard and John Griffiths Griffiths would also work on the decoration of the now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus and the High Court buildings The Dutchman Marius Bauer would arrive in the city in 1898 and opt for help on his routes to Gwalior Mathura Vrindavan and Udaipur using a familiar city establishment Thomas Cook ldquoThey were a shipping company then established in 1888 Not the tourist agency cashing travellersrsquo cheques as we know themrdquoTillotson addsMaratta Head Horace Van Ruith watercolour on handmade paper c 1880Art as fictionTillotson purposely earmarked the exhibition between two of the Subcontinentrsquos tumultuous years of political change mdash 1857 and 1947 Yet the artworks eschew any portrayal of these social moments To give context Hiroshi Yoshida travels through India in 1930 the same year Mahatma Gandhi declares the momentous Civil Disobedience MovementGiles TillotsonldquoIt is the curious incident of the dog that did not bark in the nightrdquo Tillotson quips adding ldquoThere is a sense in which all art is fiction but these works were not aimed at engaging with societal change and change in landscaperdquo This is not to say that there were not Indian artists radically changing the landscape at the same time ldquoThat is a story for another exhibitionrdquo he concludesOn May 1 to June 28 11 am to 7 pmAt DAG Mumbai Gallery The Taj Mahal Palace Apollo BunderatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params